


Glean

by ohjustdisarmalready



Series: The Road Goes On [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Dancetale Sans (Undertale), Developing Friendships, Dubious Science, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Light Angst, Side Story, Underfell Papyrus (Undertale), Underswap Papyrus (Undertale), background politics, cross-universe bullshit shenanigans, unlikely allies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:42:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28819443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustdisarmalready/pseuds/ohjustdisarmalready
Summary: Side-story beginning after chapter 19 ofAnd Whither Then? I Cannot Say. Moves concurrently with Whither Then.Glean (verb): to gather gradually, bit by bit. Historically, gathering food left behind after a harvest. Otherwise, to extract information from various sources in order to create insight that would be otherwise impossible to achieve.Someone has to gather up all the people left behind. Somehow, together, they can [find peace/find Frisk/findally get some sleep at night].
Relationships: Frisk & Papyrus (Undertale), Papyrus & Papyrus (Undertale), Papyrus & Sans (Undertale)
Series: The Road Goes On [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790866
Comments: 26
Kudos: 27





	Glean

**Author's Note:**

> Too many people asked for this to dedicate it individually--this is for everyone who requested these three! Especially Shy and Fell, who would otherwise have to wait a long time to join the plot.
> 
> This takes place the day after Red's POV in chapter 19 of Whither Then.

Okay. So. Here’s the thing.

It’s not that Papyrus doesn’t trust his brother’s judgement. Or that he’s trying to sabotage what Blueberry and Red are doing—definitely not. He wants Frisk to be found, and safe, more than anything. He’d never do something that could hurt their chances of being found. He and Blueberry are totally, one hundred percent in agreement on that. Absolutely.

The thing is, it’s hard to work on finding them when he’s got a few doubts about one of their collaborators. That is, their only collaborator.

It’s not like Papyrus is refusing to work with Red or anything, he’s just…helping…quietly. And not saying anything to Red. Or to Blueberry, who might say something to Red. Which leaves him not saying anything to anybody, in a way that could be mistaken for secrecy. But it’s not.

As far as Papyrus is concerned, Blueberry keeping secrets about this stuff—understandably! But still keeping secrets—has led to a lot of pain and uncertainty. Transparency is really important in matters of inter-universe disappearances, so nobody ends up thinking they were aiding and abetting murder or anything. So what Papyrus is doing isn’t secrecy, because he really doesn’t want to hurt his brother like that.

Instead, it’s basically discretion, which is a good thing.

See, Papyrus has learned enough about the machine to get a working understanding. He’s working with Blueberry to try to get it to reach cellular networks across dimensional boundaries, and he’s pretty sure that’s gonna work out. That’ll make things easier. As far as Red and Blueberry are concerned, that’s how he’s helping.

He’s just also…got another theory. That he hasn’t necessarily shared with anyone.

While that makes him sound like a totally shady bastard, the truth is he doesn’t even know his theory is right, so it could just be a massive waste of time that anyone who knows anything would tell him is straight up wrong. There might be nothing to share. And even if there is, there’s nothing wrong with pursuing it on his own for a little while, so he’s got something to show for it before he decides to share with the class.

…and he doesn’t trust Red.

Mostly, he doesn’t trust Red.

Something about that guy isn’t right. He didn’t start out all that sane, and he seems to be cracking at the edges, a little more erratic every day. Papyrus is keeping an eye on the whole thing, and he doesn’t like what he’s seeing.

Red started out dangerous and he’s creeping towards unhinged, one step at a time. Seeing it on somebody who could have been Sans sucks.

Sure, Blueberry is trying to help him. He’s trying like hell to reach out to Red before the guy can dig himself into a hole he can’t talk his way out of. And on the upside, either Papyrus is being played or Red is starting to kind of like Blue. That’s nice.

Papyrus still doesn’t want to give Red whatever he wants. He’s useful to have around for finding Frisk wherever they’ve gotten to, but if Red finds Frisk at the same time and Papyrus and Blue do, Papyrus doesn’t think his cooperative attitude will last. He doesn’t wanna see how that falls apart.

Obviously, Papyrus just has to find them _first_.

Frisk, somehow, knows Red. Maybe how Red says they do, or maybe some other way. Whatever the story is, Frisk can tell him exactly what the guy’s game is. Or at least he can see what they have to say and figure out where Red is blatantly lying. He just needs another side of the story—preferably, a side from someone who knows Red’s universe, and Red, better than Papyrus does.

Besides, Red’s got nothing over on him and Blue if the two of them already have Frisk. Then everyone can talk it out from there, with the cards firmly on the side of Blue and Papyrus—the people who don’t gleefully advertise that everyone they know is so hopelessly lost in LOVE that they’ll never get out. Papyrus likes that better.

So, his theory, which he’s pursuing in totally-aboveboard not-secrecy:

Red and Blue seem like they’re thinking of the multiverse as a bunch of separate universes, with walls between them that are mostly metaphorical, and barriers that are more a matter of academic challenge than physical interaction. Red can reach Blueberry and Papyrus through magic and a machine, because he somehow already has their phone number (due to Shady Bastard reasons that he won’t disclose. Hobbyist, Papyrus’s boney ass. Hobbyists don’t keep revolutionary tech in their basements).

Anyway. If they could figure out the exact wavelength for another reality, they could reach one more out of the infinite thread of universes. It’s all numbers and wavelengths and radiation frequencies and stuff.

That’s all pretty conceptual and cerebral, which is cool. Blue has trouble with it and has to draw diagrams sometimes, but everyone’s on the same page.

But Papyrus is thinking—what if the multiverse is a lot more physical than that? What if there’s literally a dimension next to another with another after that, and if you could only see them, you could make a physical map of what goes where?

If that’s true, and Blue’s right about the force sending Frisk onwards being something residual from Red, then all they have to do is draw a line from Red’s dimension to theirs, and then follow that out and see who’s next in line. They don’t have to sort through arcane weaknesses between worlds and hope they find the right one—there’s literally an arrow pointing to it.

Probably an arrow that exists on planes and in theoretical dimensions that Papyrus can’t even begin to understand, but still—if he can figure out a multiversal “true north” and go from there, he can start out with making a map. Papyrus would bet he can even get a computer program running to scan through universes for their coordinates and highlight everything that’s in the right direction, so he’s not personally combing through each little thing anymore. Right? It can’t be impossible. He just needs to triangulate signal strength from Blue’s machine versus Red’s to get a sense of distance and direction, figure out what signal interference versus distance degradation would look like, and…

So far, thrillingly, the theory’s checking out. He’s sorting through a couple of tentative mappings he’s got for a few sample universes nearby when the “RED IS: IN!” light starts flashing. Either Red’s calling or he’s left his motion sensor on to let them know he’s around.

Papyrus hastily shoves his papers in his inventory and takes out an ancient, frost-damaged textbook. He’s totally been studying this whole time. He hits _call_.

When the machine boots up its connection, Red’s not standing there and muttering at the screen, or cursing at his own pile of equations. He’s certainly not looking at what Papyrus is doing.

Actually, he’s not in front of the machine at all.

Instead, in the background, a different skeleton is leaned over a counter, carefully inspecting but not touching a mass of rejected diagrams. Papyrus can see him in profile as he scans rapidly through documents, darting glances around the lab and towards the door.

Papyrus feels like he understands how Blueberry felt when Red called them, now. That skeleton does _not_ look like him at all. But—in the frustrated set of his brow, the concealed anxiety in his shifting weight—Papyrus sees something _Papyrus_ in him. Almost instinctively, he wants to tell the guy to chill out some, try to take some of the strain off his shoulders.

It’s not like Red, who’s just so not Sans that Papyrus can make a break in his mind—not a clean one, but a break. Red is not his brother, and never could be. Blueberry on his worst day is a better person than Red at his best.

This guy, though…this guy is Papyrus.

He doesn’t seem to have noticed the screen of the machine turning on. Maybe those scars over his eye mess with his sight, or he’s just too intent on the papers he’s carefully not shifting in front of him, as well as keeping an eye on the part of the basement that Papyrus know the door is in. Papyrus isn’t too sure this guy is where he’s supposed to be.

“uh,” he says. He’s not really sure how to open the conversation with a version of him that he thought was dead. “hello?”

The other Papyrus stiffens, and straightens to a punishingly formal, upright stance. He takes his time to turn around with absolute dignity, like he couldn’t possibly have been caught snooping. It’s a lot more effective for that Papyrus as a scary-looking adult than it was for this Papyrus when he was a kid and trying to be taken seriously.

The other Papyrus narrows his eyes in what might be irritation when he sees the machine’s screen.

“State your business,” he says.

Business…?

“uh…lookin’ for frisk, i guess? in the long term…? or, uh, i thought red was calling…” Papyrus tries, a little flustered. Inter-universal kinship or no, the guy’s kind of intense first thing.

“No one by either of those names lives here,” the other Papyrus says. “What is your intention in contacting this…machine?”

Oh, boy. Did Red straight up keep his brother out of the loop on the whole dimensions thing…? No, that can’t be right—letting his Papyrus think Frisk is straight up missing with no clues and nothing to lead off of would be outright cruel, even for Red.

Then Papyrus realizes he’s relying on Red’s decency and decides to take nothing for granted.

“uh, sans. there’s a guy named sans that lives there, right? and your name is papyrus,” Papyrus says.

“This is true,” the other Papyrus says, “though I fail to see the relevance. If you’ve called my brother for political reasons…”

He trails off into a suspicious, biting look.

“dunno about any politics. we’re, uh, looking for a missing kid? a—”

With two swift strides, the other Papyrus is uncomfortably close to the monitor. His spine is stiff and his shoulders set in a hard line, but Papyrus can see how he clenches his fists.

“The human? You are confessing to me that you were collaborating with my brother over the human? How _dare_ you?” he demands, leaning over the various keyboards and desk space to glare furiously through the connection.

Papyrus leans back, spreading his hands wide. “whoa, dude, chill,” he says.

“Do not tell me to _chill_. Tell me—what—you—know. Now.” The other Papyrus could pass for dangerously aggressive if not for how hard he’s trying to hide how his hands shake, and how his elbows and shoulders tuck a little into his body in a tell Papyrus has always been embarrassed by.

He’s trying to comfort himself. He’s furious, too, but he’s…desperate.

Papyrus doesn’t know what to do with desperate. What he does know what to do with is the tight lightning feeling that seems to seize his bones when he’s having a panic attack.

“you’re safe,” he says, low and fast, before his counterpart can protest. “you’re ok. your brother’s safe, i talked to him yesterday. the kid’s ok, we’re figuring out where they’ve gone. we’re gonna find them. they’re alive.”

The other Papyrus flinches. Like the idea is more than he can take.

“your brother didn’t tell you,” Papyrus realizes. “he—you didn’t know they were alive?”

It’s a shot in the dark, but his reflection looks as thunderstruck as he is.

“Alive…?” he says. He blinks, once, twice, like he’s trying to reboot his brain into this new reality he’s in. His hands flex and clench, grasping at nothing he can reach.

…well. Papyrus is just gonna start assuming Red is a bastard at every opportunity from now on, because apparently he was _underestimating_ the guy.

The other Papyrus, to his credit, snaps out of it in less than a second.

“Proof,” he demands. “Show me proof that they’re alive and well. Swear on your _life_ that my brother didn’t put you up to this—and if I find out you’re lying, I _will_ collect.”

He seems to catch himself.

“That is—if he’s threatened you, I will speak with him. You will be protected. Just, do not lie to me about this.”

Wow. This guy is so fucking damaged.

With a brother like Red…

Papyrus decides he’s gonna try for ‘gentle’ with his counterpart. Clearly he’s been through enough already.

“i can do ya one better,” Papyrus promises, thinking fast. “i can show you a video of them a few months ago. it’s not too recent, but you can see they’re ok. or, they were when—there was a whole thing, we think they accidentally got sent away somewhere, but i can show you they got to us safe after you lost them.”

He doesn’t mean to say it like _after you totally dropped the ball_ , but the other Papyrus’s icy demeanor creeps back up in a second. No tightly-managed desperation here, no sir, only crisp and ruthless wrath. Papyrus scrolls frantically through his phone’s memory.

“here. just, uh, don’t mention the first part. to anyone. ever. please.”

There’s not time to be embarrassed while the other Papyrus looks like he’s in a hostage negotiation, which is probably the only reason Papyrus can manage to show the video in the first place. All the same, his face burns as he hits _play_ and turns the phone around.

He can follow along with the audio even as he absolutely refuses to look at the phone or the other Papyrus. Frisk’s little huffs of laughter as they start the video, turning it towards themself, grinning and motioning like _shhhhh!_

The other Papyrus makes a noise like somebody cracked a rib clean off him.

The sound is all rustling and stifled laughter as Frisk goes down the hall, and soon the humiliation begins. Papyrus can hear his own voice, singing softly and not very well, over some careful thrums of guitar chords. His whole flow stops every time he has to change the fingering, so the timing is terrible. It’s mortifying.

There’s the thunk as Frisk holds Papyrus’s phone to the door to record the sound better, and the quiet humming as they accompany him, before video-Papyrus stops.

“ _uh, sans…?_ ” his voice comes through the speaker. “ _is anybody—_ ”

Sound of the door opening. The phone clatters to the floor. Frisk dropped it when he’d opened his room door and caught them.

“ _…kid? oh, uh, i was just…i, um…is there anything i can do to get you to forget you heard anything? did, uh, did you hear anything?_ ”

Frisk’s evil little grin isn’t caught on camera, since the phone got dropped on the floor and is now showing an unflattering shot of Papyrus’s leg. Around now is when they glanced down at the still-recording phone on the ground, bringing it to his attention.

“ _wait, is that my—hey! bring that back here!_ ”

There’s rapid shuffling and shaky video that resolves in a brief freefall and a thud as Frisk steals the phone back and jumps off the balcony. Fleshy creatures are less brittle than skeletons, apparently, because they rolled and got to their feet okay.

Video-Papyrus is as flustered as the current Papyrus, playing along mostly out of good humor but also out of genuine embarrassment. No need to recap that. As Frisk’s SOUL pings blue and the sounds of gentle roughhousing begin, Papyrus keeps an eye on his counterpart.

The other Papyrus is staring at the video feed, transfixed. His fingers twitch and his magic flickers like he can step in and scoop Frisk up out of the frame—Papyrus can track when he’s winning the impromptu wrestling match by how the other Papyrus leans in or subtly flinches. He tilts his head when the video is off-center, like he’s trying to look around the edge of the recording to see what’s going on.

Eventually, video-Papyrus emerges triumphant, because Frisk is an actual child with no magic to cheat with. Then the real important shot comes—he turns the camera to Frisk, to see how they like being recorded, and Frisk waves to the camera, still grinning and a little winded. Not as much as Papyrus was after that little tussle. He needs to exercise more.

They’re clearly alive. Clearly happy. Papyrus watched that video a lot after they went away.

Papyrus reluctantly stops the video after that. He’d like to give his counterpart more, but the rest of the recording is pretty much the inside of his pocket after he misclicked trying to turn it off. The frame freezes on Frisk’s enthusiastic posing.

The other Papyrus flinches at being brought back to reality. Someone else might not notice how he has to drag his eyes away from the phone, or how they try to keep going back to it.

Papyrus already had a guess that his other self was pretty decent—Frisk didn’t seem half-terrified of him when they first met, not like how they started out with Sans—Blueberry. He’d figured they either hadn’t met the other him on account of his being dead, or else they’d liked him well enough.

Seeing his counterpart now, he thinks it’s more than that. The other Papyrus is doing his damnedest to lock down on it, but he’s devastated. He looks…probably a lot like Papyrus did, in the days after Frisk disappeared.

“…I see,” the other Papyrus says. “They…live with you?”

It’s not that Papyrus or his brother wouldn’t have given them a place to stay, but Frisk never did take them up on it. There was something burning in them to get to the Barrier. Papyrus always figured they wanted to go home, but now…he doesn’t know.

“they found someplace else to stay. i think at the inn,” he says. “they were passing through and hung out with us some. we’re friends. probably could have been family, but…they had their own they wanted to get back to.”

It’s a guess at best. Papyrus has no way of knowing what Frisk was thinking, anymore, since it’s not like he can ask. But the other Papyrus seems to draw some desperately-needed comfort from that.

“Of course,” he sniffs, would-be arrogant and trying for confidence. “Whatever paltry offerings you have could not possibly measure up to those of the Great and Terrible Papyrus. Clearly they would want to return to me.”

Papyrus feels kind of bad, since he’s pretty sure he drove the guy halfway to an anxiety attack and then lowkey insinuated that he…stole his sibling…? Surprise-adopted them?

“i bet they do,” he decides to say. “we’re trying to get them back to you, too. i bet they can’t wait to see you again.”

It’s the right thing to say. The other Papyrus makes an expression that’s very nearly a smile, relaxing his iron grip on control just a touch. Now it’s a softer alloy-based grip on control.

“Indeed. I will come to collect them, if it is safe for me to do so—where in the Underground are you? I don’t believe I am familiar with your face,” the other Papyrus says. “…or your name. Or why you are appearing on a machine in my basement.”

“heh,” Papyrus says. “uh. not too sure why you’re here, either, pal. i kinda thought you were dead.”

The other Papyrus scowls. “Is that what my brother has told you? I would assume any monster in the Underground would know better than to believe that, given current events. I am quite clearly alive and well.”

Papyrus shrugs—he’s not getting into the middle of that. “more like he hasn’t mentioned you. just says you’re out most of the time, which, i guess he was being a bit more honest than i gave him credit for. no offense, but your bro’s kinda shady.”

The other Papyrus shakes his head, apparently unsurprised to hear that his brother is an asshole.

“None taken. He and I are…not currently on speaking terms. I will defend him with my life, should it be called for,” he says, pointedly, “but I don’t suppose he would be discussing me with anyone still willing to speak to him.”

There’s a story and a half there. Red’s said before that he’s not necessarily popular in his universe, though he’s contradicted himself and said he used to be, but Papyrus has never really been clear on why that is.

“well, we needed his help finding frisk,” Papyrus admits. “not sure i’d love to be talking to him otherwise, but my bro sees the best in people.”

“My condolences,” the other Papyrus says, with all apparent sincerity. “That can be a difficult weakness to overcome. Perhaps one day, such faith will be warranted.”

Months of dealing with Red let Papyrus shrug that off, more or less. It’s probably meant to be supportive. “thanks.”

“Nonetheless, it appears you have me at a disadvantage. I was under the impression that I’d personally spoken to every monster in the Underground since my sibling’s…disappearance. Yet, I have no information concerning a skeleton monster, and apparently not a very strong one, who may have discovered them again,” the other Papyrus says. His spine is still straight as a ruler, but he seems less tense now.

Oh, boy.

Papyrus doesn’t have much to draw on in terms of ‘inner strength,’ or whatever. He kinda just goes with the flow most of the time, while also worrying about the flow and where it may lead. Instead, he tries to draw on…inner chill? The other Papyrus looks like a guy who could use a calming presence.

“alright. so. i’m not, uh, underground, first of all.”

The other Papyrus narrows his eyes.

“Aren’t you,” he says.

“nope. i’m, ah, i’m on the surface. i live here. what do you…whaddaya know about alternate universes?” Papyrus says, already wincing.

“I know that my brother spoke about them briefly when he was insane,” he clips out. “That was many years ago. It seemed to be a metaphor, at the time. I would be a fool to believe all of Sans’s incoherent ramblings from that time.”

Oof. Papyrus almost isn’t surprised to hear that Red was once even crazier than he is now, but the other Papyrus just throwing his brother under the bus with no hesitation. He must be pretty pissed.

Well, actually, Red’s said something about how insanity isn’t uncommon over there, didn’t he? Maybe it’s just a fact—Waterfall is wet, and some people used to be crazy. Or Papyrus has earned some honesty by being buds with Frisk. Hard to say.

“well, i dunno about your bro being crazy, or anything, but alternate universes are definitely a thing. imagine a world that’s kinda like yours—has an undyne and a papyrus and everything—but instead, there’s like, something different about it? maybe that law you guys have about how you have to kill people doesn’t exist, or the first human never fell, or something,” Papyrus says.

“Had,” the other Papyrus corrects.

“sorry?”

“We _had_ a law. Things are different now.”

Papyrus blinks. “uh. good for you, i guess? way to go on that. unless the difference is that you have to kill more people. then that’s bad.”

“It is not.” The other Papyrus doesn’t clarify whether it’s not that they have to kill more people, or whether it is that and he doesn’t think that’s a bad thing. Papyrus is a little afraid to ask. He doesn’t want Red’s life lessons coming out of his own face.

“nice,” he says. ‘Nice’ is a great word. Covers all kinds of things, from ‘congrats on figuring out murder is bad’ to ‘let’s never talk about this again please.’ Papyrus loves the word ‘nice.’

“anyway, so, uh. this universe might be really close to yours, like basically identical, or it might be totally strange. you might recognize people in it, like they look just like people you know, or it could be the world where we’re all humans or something and you don’t know anyone from anyone. but, uh, mostly the point is it’s a place that’s like yours, but different from yours.”

The other Papyrus hums thoughtfully, despite looking like he lives on the line between ‘edgy teen’ and ‘legitimately terrifying to behold.’

“So with this being the case, am I to assume you are called ‘Papyrus’?” he asks.

Now, Papyrus knows he’s not stupid, but he’s taken a little aback by that.

“uh, yeah. how did you know?” he asks.

His counterpart smirks. “I have my ways.”

Well, if he has his ways, that’s fine, then. Papyrus decides not to question it too hard.

“Given that we are both Papyrus, we should find a way to avoid confusion in referring to ourselves. Though I am illustrious and most deserving of the name, and you are no doubt a fine example of skeletal excellence yourself, it seems prudent to avoid ambiguity in this case.”

The other Papyrus seems totally sincere. Papyrus nods along in the wake of his conviction. It’s kind of weird to be honestly called a “fine example of skeletal excellence.” Even Blueberry would probably call that laying it on a bit too thick.

“uh…” he stutters, like a fine example of skeletal excellence would. “your brother calls me weird stepdad nicknames? i think he uses ‘stretch’ most often.”

“We will need to speak about your association with Sans in this case,” the other Papyrus agrees. “However, first: as a master of diplomacy and negotiations, I will cede this battle as a courtesy to you, another Papyrus of equal standing. You may keep the name.”

“i mean you don’t have to—” Papyrus tries to say, but he’s promptly steamrolled by his counterpart.

“I will be referred to from now on as…Edge.” He delivers this with perfect dignity.

“dude, no, just use papyrus,” Papyrus says. Then he flushes as he realizes he just smacked the guy’s idea down. Without even being nice about it.

Look, he hates disagreeing with people over anything, especially people who seem totally, a hundred percent certain about a thing, but he’s not calling the guy ‘Edge.’ That would be more embarrassing than speaking up about it could ever be.

“No. I am being gracious. You will keep our name. Please cooperate before I am forced to use force.”

Papyrus holds out his hands. “ok! ok, ok, alright, i’m cooperating! look at this cooperation. totally cooperating. yep.”

“Good. You agree to my terms, then?”

Papyrus didn’t hear any terms stated. Mostly just an edgy nickname.

“Uh, how’s about…we use something else. Maybe in your world that’s a cool name, but, uh, in mine, it’s…kinda weird,” Papyrus tries. “i mean i guess i could call you that, but, uh, it would be kinda embarrassing. for, uh, for me at least.”

“Hmm,” the other Papyrus hums. “Fell. Is this an acceptable compromise?”

Like ‘Fell Down’? That’s kinda morbid…

But also, Papyrus really doesn’t wanna keep arguing with the guy, and he won’t be absolutely crushed by embarrassment by calling a grown man ‘Fell’ out loud in the world, so this might be as good as it gets.

“uh, yeah. that sounds great,” he says unconvincingly. “fell. that’s neat. what a cool name.”

Actually, speaking about it, he’s kind of convincing himself. It’s pretty alright, for a guy who comes from a world where Falling Down peacefully probably doesn’t really happen. A little morbid for Papyrus, but hey, at least he won’t get confused.

“And you will remain Papyrus. Now. Yes or no: am I to understand that retrieving the human from an alternate universe is a time- and effort-intensive process?” Fell asks.

“dude, you have _no idea_ ,” Papyrus says fervently.

“I had assumed as much,” says Fell. “In that case, I move to exchange contact information, so that we may discuss this more thoroughly from more convenient locations, and when I can consult the expertise of trusted individuals in my own universe. Is this amenable to you?”

Papyrus has had pretty good luck with educated guesses with this guy, so…

“you’re not supposed to be there, are you? in the, uh, secret basement lab?” he asks. He sure hadn’t known what was kept in his version until Blueberry stopped having (or at least repressed) his totally-not-PTSD responses to the idea of going in there.

Fell raises one brow. “And what if I’m not? It’s my own basement. What Sans doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“and you two are on the outs ‘cause he’s a shady bastard. got it. well, your secret’s safe with me,” Papyrus promises. “i won’t mention you breaking into his super-secret basement lab long as you don’t mention i’m working with you. bet we can get this to work out for both of us, huh?”

“At least until I get the full story. I know for a fact that Sans has lied to me about the human’s fate, and I know he did something reprehensible, but…perhaps his actions were not so unforgivable as I had thought. I want to understand exactly what happened before I go forward. I came here today to investigate at what may well be my last chance—I deserve this much, at least.” Fell’s expression dares Papyrus to argue with him.

“no, yeah, that’s fair. ‘s good to double-check anything that guy says, he’s a hell of a liar if you don’t mind me saying.”

Fell apparently doesn’t mind, because he smiles sardonically. “I am aware. As long as he is not a liar directly responsible for the death of our sibling, I am willing to accept him anyway.”

Oof. Yeah, Papyrus can sorta see how this might have gone down, now. He’s not gonna say Red is innocent, ‘cause he’s clearly lying to _somebody_ or Fell would have known that Frisk isn’t dead, but maybe this won’t end in tears. Hopefully.

“right-o. well, me ‘n my sans—i mean, not mine, he’s mostly his own sans, but the guy who lives in my world—which, i mean, i guess that makes him my sans, if you compare—anyway. me and my bro are working on a prototype of something that’ll let us make phone calls to your universe. so, uh, wait about…a week? and i’ll try to call you?” Papyrus asks.

He hates phone conversations. He already has regrets.

Then again, Fell looks like he just ripped a bone attack out of his spine and ate four cinnamon bunnies for it, so he guesses it’s not so bad. The guy apparently just didn’t know that his sibling was alive at all, and then learned that they might be able to come home some day and also his brother didn’t kill them in cold blood, which is a feeling Papyrus is unfortunately familiar with. He probably needs a minute, even without the looming threat of Red walking in and catching them chatting.

“…Yes. Assuming I am alive next week, I will happily answer. If I am not, I will ensure my phone’s survival tell my world’s Alphys and Undyne to expect your call. Even if I myself am executed before my movement can be seen through, it will be a worthy endeavor to bring my sibling home. They will be pleased to see how much has changed here,” Fell says.

This dude’s life is hardcore. Papyrus has no idea what he’s talking about.

He gives Fell a lazy salute. “you go, soldier. smart money says i won’t, but if i somehow see frisk before i see you next, i’ll let ‘em know you say hi.”

“Indeed. Please tell them that they are missed. We go to the king tomorrow, and perhaps by the time we meet again, our world will be very different from the one they left.” He seems very confident for someone who’s directly conflicting everything Red has had to say about his world. Maybe it’s not so bad there?

Papyrus decides to reserve judgement. He’s gotten two accounts, and he’s inclined to believe his alternate self, but he’ll need to be getting the full story, too.

“neat. uh, try not to die, i guess. your phone number’s 112, right?” Papyrus asks.

“It is. I will speak to you in a week, Papyrus,” Fell replies. He inclines his head like a king recognizing some lesser noble of great renown. “It has been a pleasure to meet you.”

“yeah. lookin’ forward to it. nice to meet you, too.” Papyrus is surprised to find he means it. He gets a subtle smile for it before he has mercy on them both and cuts the connection off. He watches the screen go dark.

So that’s the other him, huh? Kind of edgy, but…he doesn’t seem so bad.

Hell, if things go alright and Red continues to be super shady…Papyrus wouldn’t mind working with Fell on this.

Blue’s getting some desperately-needed sleep right now an Papyrus needs a consult on his coding, so there’s not a whole ton he can do with the cell phone thing. But hey, if he can figure this dimension-mapping thing out enough to run it by Fell’s dimension’s Alphys, maybe they can mock up some peer review. Maybe between the three of them, plus whatever that world’s Undyne brings to the table, they can really…

Well. Won’t do to get too ahead of himself. He has to figure out if his theory works first, right? But if everything goes well, maybe Team Papyrus can do something.

Yeah. Papyrus smiles as he gets his notes back in order. Go team.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been ready for Pap squad for so long :D I nearly wrote this out of the story, but was convinced to keep it after so many people wanted to know how Shy was doing. He's not here yet, but he will be! And tbh, I love Fell a lot and wanted to check in on him. He's got a lot going on.


End file.
